September 29, 2011
Illinois

Final decision weeks away on wind farm near Royal

Tom Kacich, The News-Gazette, www.news-gazette.com 29 September 2011

URBANA – A proposed 30-turbine wind farm in northeast Champaign County will get another hearing Thursday night before the Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals – but probably not its last hearing.

“I can’t imagine that this will be the last hearing on the wind farm,” said John Hall, Champaign County’s zoning and planning director. In fact, the ZBA has scheduled an Oct. 6 special meeting on the petition from Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America LLC to build the 30 wind towers, part of the 134-turbine California Ridge wind farm in Vermilion and Champaign counties.

Thursday’s hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U.

And once the ZBA is finished with the wind farm proposal, it goes to the Champaign County Board.

Among the issues still unresolved are agreements to upgrade county and township roads in preparation for the heavy equipment used in construction of the wind turbines, and a deal regarding the eventual decommissioning and removal of the units.

Although the county board tentatively had scheduled action on the Invenergy proposal in October, that seems unlikely now, Hall said.

“The word I’m getting from county board members is that they don’t want to see this until these outstanding issues are taken care of,” Hall said.

The 30 turbines planned for Champaign County would be in a rural area north of Royal. The land taken in the proposed development would cover about 22 acres and is not best prime farmland, Hall said at an earlier meeting.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/09/29/final-decision-weeks-away-on-wind-farm-near-royal/